Kamala Harris Offers Aid Pledges on Visit to Storm-Hit North Carolina

(Bloomberg) — Vice President Kamala Harris met relief officials and volunteers in North Carolina in a show of support for victims of Hurricane Helene, which caused large-scale damage in the election battleground state.
The storm, which killed more than 200 people, has become a flashpoint in the presidential race, as Republican Donald Trump disparages the disaster response and Harris, the Democratic nominee, touts the Biden administration’s efforts to offer resources.
“So I came here to find out what’s going on the ground, what more can we do in terms of federal aid,” Harris told reporters at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. That includes $100 million to help rebuild Interstate 40, she said.
Economic damage, including those covered by private insurance, could total as much as $250 billion, according to a projection from AccuWeather Inc. That would make it one of the costliest storms in US history.
Harris, Trump and President Joe Biden have made several separate visits to areas affected by the hurricane in recent days. Biden approved cost-sharing measures to help aid recovery efforts. Trump has criticized the federal response, saying Harris and Biden deserve “poor grades” for their handling of the disaster.
Trump also falsely claimed that disaster recovery funding was being used to offer housing and other services to migrants. A White House spokesman, Andrew Bates, said in a memo that “funding for communities to support migrants is directly appropriated by Congress” to Customs and Border Patrol, and isn’t included in recovery efforts.
Ahead of Election Day on Nov. 5, the storm’s impact is causing concern about early and mail-in voting across the US Southeast, including in devastated cities such as Asheville, North Carolina. 
A top election official in the state said some polling places could be inaccessible because of damaged roads or mudslides. Some 250,000 absentee ballot requests have also been made in the state, with roughly 10,000 in the Asheville region alone, according to Bob Phillips, executive director of the nonpartisan nonprofit Common Cause North Carolina. 
Some of those ballots had only just been delivered or were in the mail when Helene struck. The US Postal Service suspended operations in multiple zip codes in the Asheville area, and more than 30 post offices in western North Carolina have been closed at certain points.
Harris was briefed by local, state and federal officials about recovery efforts across North Carolina, according to a White House official. She updated them on federal actions, including a major disaster declaration that unlocks direct support for hurricane relief.
“We’re very grateful for the support you’ve given us,” Angelica Wind, an Asheville resident who was helping with relief packages in Charlotte, told Harris. “We still need a lot more. We want to make sure that people don’t forget about us because this is going to be a recovery for a very long time.”
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